Though the comments didn’t include an explicit mention of military action, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu says that his nation will “do whatever we can” to prevent ISIS from seizing the Kurdish border town of Ayn al-Arab.
ISIS has been moving closer to Ayn al-Arab throughout the week, and large numbers of Kurdish fighters don’t seem to be able to stop their advance this time, and they’ve reached the outskirts of town according to most indications.
Coming just a day after Turkey’s parliament authorized military operations inside Syria and Iraq, Davutoglu’s comments have been seen by many as a sign that an intervention at Ayn al-Arab might be imminent.
Yet later in his speech, Davutoglu appeared to downplay that possibility, saying that if they intervene directly to save the Kurds in that town, they’d also have to intervene on behalf of the Turkmens in Yayladag, as well as the Arabs across the border from Reyhanli, who have also been faced incursions from Islamist factions.
Turkish Erdogan government should have done something yesterday or last week or week before that. What is it that they are waiting for? Another NATO order from Denmark and that Danish Rattmussen, or tha Swedish King, or their masters in Saudi arabia.
The town is only a target for ISIS because of the connection it offers to ISIS supply lines, medical care, recruits, and oil smuggling into Turkey. Turkey could end ISIS' offensive against the town just by cutting the border to ISIS and making the border crossing useless to them. But they are up to their eyeballs in support for ISIS, and it'll be a while before groups of Europeans clutching "Islam For Dummies" (yes it exists) stop taking taxis to the crossing points with Syria to go off an be cannon fodder for ISIS.